The present invention relates to apparatus for reducing the number and size of clumps or clods or other aggregations of earthen material or for screening granular or aggregate material and in particular to such an apparatus that is attached to a skid-steer loader or other power source such as a tractor.
Landscapers typically smoothly contour the ground surface before laying sod or planting bushes or flowers. Nutrient rich earth is the preferred base for such a use and where such soil does not exist at a particular site, it is often times transported there from a seller, such as a garden nursery.
To be readily and easily usable, especially by a home owner using hand tools to distribute contour, and landscape the soil bed, it is preferred that the soil, whether utilized from on-site supplies or delivered from a seller, is available for use without significant clumping or aggregation of the earthen material into clods. As anyone who has worked soil where large numbers of clods are found can attest, the presence of clods contributes to either extra work to reduce them or to an uneven surface. If left alone, large dirt clumps or clods may tend to disintegrate over time, but in doing so they leave a small pile rather than the desired even surface. Where soil is purchased from a seller, then, delivery without significant amounts of clods is required to minimize reworking of the soil at the site.
Compacted and aggregated soils affect not only garden nurseries, but also landscapers, construction companies, trenching companies, or anyone else that disturbs a site and must refinish it. For example, during construction of a new home, new topsoil may not be brought in from off site because the existing top soil may be adequate for the desired lawn and garden uses. During the actual construction, however, the topsoil may be cleared and piled for later replacement. As the soil sits in the pile, it can accumulate moisture and compact or aggregate into clods, resulting in clumps that require considerable reworking after replacement. Trenchers will also disturb the top soil layer, requiring replacement. Once again, a smoothly contoured surface is desirable before laying new sod or seeding.
To address this problem of soil clumps, soil pulverizers have been constructed to reduce soil xe2x80x9clumpinessxe2x80x9d. Typically, these devices comprise rotating screening drums into which the soil is placed by another machine. These pulverizers are typically rather large and are designed to process significant amounts of soil at one time. Purchase and operation of such large scale pulverizers is therefore cost prohibitive for many, if not most, landscapers and soil retailers such as nurseries. Consequently, retailers such as garden nurseries tend to rent pulverizers on a short-term basis to process the soil in inventory while landscapers or construction companies may do the same to process soils used on-site. This processing may have to be done on a repeated and regular basis because even though once processed, as the newly pulverized and piled soil sits it absorbs moisture and once again clods can form. Pulverizing soil, then, is a continuing cost item for operators that do finish landscape work. Failing to pulverize the soil may result in the operation incurring additional labor and machine costs to achieve the desired soil bed contours while the present day pulverizing methods typically require bringing in the aforementioned large-scale pulverizers at additional cost.
It would be desirable to have a pulverizer that was economical to purchase and to use, that would readily process soil to reduce clumps; that provided the operator with the ability to readily change pulverizer screens; and that was easily transportable.
It is an object of the present invention to provide apparatus that is not subject to the foregoing disadvantages.
It is an object of the present invention to provide apparatus for pulverizing material and screening the same.
It is another object of the present invention to provide apparatus for pulverizing soil clods and clumps and screening material that is cost effective for small businesses to own and operate.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide apparatus for pulverizing soil clods and clumps that is mountable to a skid-steer loader, tractor or other machinery.
The present invention provides a soil pulverizer for reducing the dumpiness or aggregation of soil into clumps or clods. In an embodiment of the present invention, the pulverizer may be mounted as an attachment onto an appropriate power source such as a tractor or a skid-steer loader. A pulverizer in accord with the present invention has a frame mounting a substantially cylindrically configured screening drum for rotation. The frame has a mounting bracket for attaching the pulverizer to the power source. The frame preferably mounts a protective shell or housing that partially encloses the screening drum. The frame may mount an attached scoop to the front thereof to facilitate guiding soil into the screening drum when attached to the tractor or loader. That is, the scoop may be pushed into a pile of dirt to push dirt into the screening drum.
A screening drum according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a cylindrical screen mounted to a shaft for rotation about the shaft longitudinal axis. The rear end of the shaft includes an attachment head having a recess configured to be attached to a drive shaft from a hydraulic motor or other appropriate power source. In the present embodiment illustrated herein, the attachment head includes a recess to receive non-rotationally the end of a power source drive shaft. To facilitate mounting the screening drum within the housing the scoop may include a slot to allow the forward end of the drum drive shaft to pass through.
The foregoing objects of the present invention will be fully understood and appreciated by those skilled in the art upon reading the present description in conjunction with the attached drawings illustrating an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the present invention showing it attached to the front end of a skid-steer loader, which is shown in phantom outline.
FIG. 2 shows the present invention in a front elevation view.
FIG. 3 depicts the present invention in a bottom plan view.
FIG. 4 illustrates the present invention is a side elevation, cross sectional view taken along viewing plane 4xe2x80x944 of FIG. 2.
FIG. 5 shows that portion of FIG. 4 indicated by the circle xe2x80x9cAxe2x80x9d in greater detail.
FIG. 6 illustrates the attachment of the screening drum shaft and the hydraulic motor in a cross sectional view taken along viewing plane 6xe2x80x946 of FIG. 5.
FIGS. 7A-7D depict the present invention in operation.